A Path to Success

I love to play golf, and caddying can provide me a scholarship to Ohio State University which would be amazing.

Struggling to keep up with the pace of the others, falling behind and putting yourself in a bad place. Then thinking how you can mount a comeback? How can I do this? Can I even do this? I don’t even care. Wait yes I do, of course I do! As my brain struggles for answers to each and everyone of these several I am asking I begin to plummet into dark hole where you push away common, nice people for no reason. That is what this kind of game can do to you if you do not achieve and obtain patience. The game of golf has taught me so much, and I am so grateful for what is has done for me through my life.

It all started when I was about 14 years old. My sister was working at an advanced golf course called Inverness. This is where I began a journey that would help me become who I am today. After just a few years of caddying on this magnificent course I learned so much. Learned how to look at the game of golf, manners, and how to approach an adult for jobs and etc. When I had finished my 2nd year of caddying, I began to look at the golf course a little differently and how I approach each shot. As I would walk up to 6 foot-wide green, squared tee box, I felt a sense of dew usually on the dense but thin grass. All I around me I see green, green in many different shades. These different shades then leads me to the putting green, the lightest shade of them all. This is my goal. I may have a long path ahead of me but I am willing to put in the work at 8 am on a green, spacious golf course.

During those 2 years I picked up many things as I had listed but I never explained the connections I had made with the players I had caddied for. You would expect that I would caddy for an ignorant businessmen right? Actually, as surprised as you would be, I caddied for tons of nice and caring people. One of them was an unaccompanied guest from a club up in Detroit. As we began to walk down the course in the early afternoon, we developed a bond. We cracked jokes and provided information to each other. My information was mostly about the fresh course, but his was more about life and what you desire to be. He told me just a few basic words, he said just to follow your dreams. Everyone is gonna want to bring your dream or dreams down just so they can get a bit of attention or seem slightly funny but don’t let that take you down. What I did not tell you about him was that he was 79 years old and played like a professional, also his goal one day since he was 12 years old was to play Inverness. He told me to believe everything happens for a reason as long as you work hard and try your hardest. When we reached the end of the 18th hole he paid me and we went our separate ways. I don’t intend ever seeing this man again, I decided to listen to him so now I try my hardest at everything I do. Eventually, I began to use his advice toward a very particular sport called golf.

I did not start playing the game of golf until last year. I learn a lot through caddying and just by myself. I was focusing on a ball, not focusing about anything else. I was focusing on a swing, not focusing on anything other than it. My head is in the game, but is it too much in the game? Am I focused too much? Maybe I am, I’m not going to important events or going to meetings I need to be at. But I am going to most events, and I am participating so what am I worrying about? I began to think that practicing this sport all the time isn’t worth it because, I don’t fit in with others or as popular as others. I had caddied for so long and as often as I did I felt like I wasn’t spending my summers the right way. I needed to be with my friends, enjoying the summer like everyone else. But the I began to think about what other great people did, and how they got to where they did. I gotta follow my own path and just be patient with everything that comes my way. Because everything happens for a reason.

In the end, the game of golf of golf has provided me with many opportunities and skills I use in everyday life. I believe that you must treat life as a game of golf. You must take one shot at a time and the mentality you have in each shot will affect your outcome. Being patient and putting all you can into every single opportunity that you can get your hands on. Hard work pays off as even for a 12 year old kid who had a dream to play a golf course, and 67 years later of hard work that dream became true.

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